Page 185 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II

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The opening sentence of this chapter speaks of a faith-filled, servant
leadership seeking to maintain the right order for humanity while building up
the kingdom of heaven here on earth. The quality needed for this process is
“restraint” that, in turn, can be described as being single-minded and
surrendering to the will of God.

To surrender to the will of God is to be open to the power or exousia of the
Holy Spirit. Technically, that word means authority - not the authority of
brute force, but in God’s economy of salvation, the authority of a tiny child
who has the power to melt the hardest of human hearts. It is the power of
powerlessness, the power of love. That love is the only power that will last,
and that will, in the end, overcome all things. That is the power God used to
transform the crucifixion and death of Jesus into the new life of resurrection.

Living and functioning out of this indwelling power of the Holy Spirit,
anything is possible to those who believe. They will experience genuine
sovereignty, as well as the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit that this world
cannot give.

Nothing happens when gravel, rocks, and water are mixed. But if the hard
rocks are ground down into a grey powder, and that is mixed with water and
gravel, concrete strong enough to build formidable overpasses and soaring
skyscrapers is the result. Similarly, when God’s power mixes with the
foundation of our powerlessness, amazing things can happen within us and
to us – we will be able to endure any hardships coming our way in life
because we are walking with the Spirit of God towards our eternal destiny.

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b
a Psalm 37:7-13; 2 Timothy 1:6-7; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Matthew 19:26;
Mark 9:23; John 14:11-14; Galatians 6:8; John 5:24; Luke 8:13-15.
d